Lakeland’s board of trustees hired Rusty Taylor, the superintendent at Naco Elementary School District in Arizona, Wednesday evening.
Taylor will oversee more students in Lakeland than in Naco, where about 275 students in grades K- 8 were enrolled. Lakeland had more than 4,500 students enrolled last year.
Lakeland recently hired an assistant superintendent, Jake Massey, the former principal at Lakeland’s Garwood Elementary School.
Taylor replaces outgoing Superintendent Lisa Arnold, who resigned after a stressful year following a failed levy, subsequent budget cuts and a long campaign for an eventual levy passage. Arnold had been with the district for 34 years, serving as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent before taking the district’s top job three years ago.
Trustees selected two finalists, Taylor and Bridgit Arkoosh, the principal at Heyburn Elementary School in St. Maries. Both were also finalists for the assistant superintendent’s role, EdNews learned through a public records request.
On Tuesday, trustees interviewed both candidates. The interviews were announced on the school district’s website as a quorum where “No Business of the Board is scheduled or will be occurring,” according to the notice posted Monday.
Taylor was the only candidate who attended Wednesday’s regular board meeting. Trustees went into an executive session and invited Taylor to join them.
Nearly an hour later, trustees returned to an open meeting with just three of the five trustees present. A motion was made immediately to hire and with no discussion, Chair Michelle Thompson and trustees Randi Bain and Bob Jones voted in favor of hiring Taylor. Trustee Dave Quimby left after executive session so was not present to vote. Trustee Ramona Grissom was absent.
Trustees did not interview the candidates in an open meeting, share their qualifications with the public or offer patrons an opportunity to ask questions of the candidates.
“Welcome aboard,” Thompson said, with applause from Bain, in front of a handful of patrons.
Thompson did not respond to an interview request from EdNews.
Jones said that he thought Taylor was the best candidate due to his “breadth” of experience at all grade levels, with special education, and knowledge of school finance.
“He’s well-experienced and came across as very confident in his abilities,” Jones told EdNews.
Jones said he thinks Taylor will fit well into the community but will have to learn the quirks of Idaho funding and educational systems.
He noted that while the board didn’t seek public input on the hire, candidates did interview with three panels — parents, teachers and administrators — before finalists were selected about 10 days ago.
Jones said Taylor’s lack of experience in a larger district was a “minor consideration.”
“Having been a superintendent myself, the job is the same regardless of the school district. It just comes with a difference in volume,” Jones said.
Taylor will officially start as superintendent on July 1, but likely won’t arrive in Rathdrum until July 14, as he and his family coordinate their move from Arizona.
This story was originally published by Idaho Ed News.